Welcome to a 2019 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival review! Epcot’s biggest festival of the year is upon us and that means that it’s time to eat and drink our way around World Showcase. The 2019 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival runs from August 29 – November 23, 2019 and doesn’t cost extra to attend (food and drink are an additional cost). Scattered throughout Epcot are “Global Marketplaces”, which showcase culinary delights according to a specific theme. Global Marketplaces open at 11am unless otherwise noted. Please enjoy our Australia Global Marketplace review from the 2019 Epcot International Food and Wine Festival!

Here’s how Disney describes Australia Global Marketplace:

Australia Menu

Food:

• Grilled Sweet and Spicy Bushberry Shrimp with Pineapple, Pepper, Onion and Snap Peas (GF)
• Roasted Lamb Chop with Sweet Potato Purée, Bushberry Pea Salad and Pistachio-Pomegranate Gremolata (GF)
• Deconstructed Pavlova with Pastry Cream, Citrus-macerated Berries and Lemon Myrtle Meringue (KA) (GF) (V)

Beverage:

• Coopers Brewery Original Pale Ale
• Hope Estate “Wollombi Brook” Semillon, Hunter Valley
• Franklin Tate Estates Chardonnay, Margaret River
• 3 Rings Shiraz, Barossa Valley
• Wine Flight also available

Select dishes featuring Melissa’s Produce.

Grilled Sweet and Spicy Bushberry Shrimp – $6.00

Served with Pineapple, Pepper, Onion and Snap Peas

Generally speaking, you will probably be looking to spend your money on something exotic or overly photogenic when it comes to the Epcot International Food and Wine Festival. The shrimp is neither, but that doesn’t mean it’s bad…or even worth skipping. Three shrimp are well cooked and seasoned, probably one of the better shrimp offerings at the festival. The bed of pineapple, onion, and snap peas make this a rather tropical dish. We really enjoyed trying to fit as much of the pineapple and onion as possible onto our utensil with each bite of shrimp. The snap peas add a nice texture to the dish, but do little for the overall flavor. It’s a solid dish, and if you’re in the mood for shrimp, this is a good option. If, however, you’re on the lookout for something exotic or photogenic, you can safely pass on this dish.

Roasted Lamb Chop – $7.75

Served with Sweet Potato Purée, Bushberry Pea Salad and Pistachio-Pomegranate Gremolata

The Roasted Lamb Chop is about the fourth or fifth time that a similar dish has been offered with a slight variation. With so many festivals year after year, many items tend to blend together – nothing more so than the meat offering at the Australia Global Marketplace.

As for the Roasted Lamb Chop itself, it’s a tremendously soft and flavorful offering. We were able to separate the meat from the bone easily, and the sweet potato puree was enjoyable. Overall, this is a nice dish that is worth adding to your list.

Deconstructed Pavlova  – $4.00

Served with Pastry Cream, Citrus-macerated Berries and Lemon Myrtle Meringue

Strawberry, raspberry, and blueberry are sprinkled along the pastry cream bed of this dessert. While the fruit was fresh, this dessert simply wasn’t interesting or flavorful enough for us to recommend it to you.

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The Australia Global Marketplace is a bit of a middle of the road offering. Typically we look for at least one outstanding entree and a good dessert to recommend a stop at one of the Food and Wine kiosks. With a relatively weak dessert offering, it makes it tough to recommend a stop here. That said, nothing is so terrible that you would be wasting your money here, so if something looks interesting to you, go ahead and give Australia a try this year.

Thank you for reading our Australia review, and keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com for more Epcot International Food & Wine Festival coverage.